Puma has made quite the splash in its return to the basketball sneaker market, inking four projected lottery picks in Thursday night’s NBA Draft.
Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III, Michael Porter Jr., and Zhaire Smith are the young wave of players that are on board with Puma as they make their first basketball sneaker since 1998. On Wednesday, Puma offered the first look at its new hoops shoe, the Clyde Court, which has a traditional Puma look with all of the things you expect from a modern performance hoops sneaker — a knit upper, cushioned midsole, and a bootie construction.
They also announced their first NBA veteran signing on Wednesday, as free agent-to-be Rudy Gay appeared at their launch event to announce his addition to the brand.
Rudy Gay just appeared at Puma’s New York event and was announced as the brand’s newest signing. Still more on the way…
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) June 20, 2018
Gay is a Roc Nation-signed athlete, and with Jay-Z’s involvement as a consultant with Puma, it comes as little surprise that one of his clients is the first current NBA player to ink a deal with Puma. We also got our first look at the Clyde Court in action courtesy of Chris Brickley’s footage of one of Gay’s recent workouts.
The black and white colorway is much more subtle than the two we got looks at earlier in the day, and you can see the versatility with how they can make different colorways with this sneaker and that it looks pretty good on foot and on the floor.
